Traditionally, one of the primary methods for a business, and in particular a small business, to obtain new customers was through “word of mouth” recommendations and/or referrals. Traditionally, the more trusted the source of a word-of-mouth recommendation, such as from a personal friend, the more likely the recommendation was to be taken and/or acted upon. Two primary forms of word-of-mouth recommendations exist; one being recommendations from a trusted contact or group of contacts, such as friends and acquaintances; the other being referrals from one business to another business where the referring business is a trusted contact and/or has an existing relationship with the potential customer.
While word of mouth recommendations are still, by far, the most trusted form of recommendation, word-of-mouth recommendation networks are typically extremely slow, very inefficient, and can be very volatile and unreliable. Consequently, in the 21st century, a small business, and particularly a small business just starting up, may not have the time and/or economic resources to wait for a significant word-of-mouth network to develop. In addition, as people's lives have become busier and more complicated, the types of personal relationships required to effectively create a word-of-mouth network have given way to a more virtually world, typically connected through the Internet, and much faster paced lives.
As a result, both trusted contact and business-to-business referrals have recently been supplemented with networked communities, typically connected via a network, such as the Internet or other private or public mechanism. Networked communities typically include persons who share common interests, residential districts, political beliefs, religious beliefs, or any other social, political, and or personal attributes that bring these people together in the networked communities, often trough a community website, to share ideas and resources. While, networked communities have many attributes that would make them ideal for replacing the word-of-mouth recommendation networks, networked communities are typically not formed around the concept of making merchant recommendations and therefore typically lack any sophisticated or efficient mechanism for soliciting reviews and recommendations, authenticating the source of reviews and/or recommendations, and/or distributing the reviews and/or recommendations. Consequently, while effective in many areas, networked communities have typically failed to provide an effective business recommendation service to replace word of mouth networks.
In addition, another recent source of business and/or merchant recommendations are the now commonly known and used ratings and review systems, including community-based ratings and review systems. Currently, there exist several types and/or models of rating and review systems. Typically, a rating and review system provides a review forum and rating and recommendation service for various businesses and/or products. Current rating and review systems typically provide listings of businesses, often based on a selected community, topic, organization, and/or membership service, and various products, as well as a user review and/or feedback forum and/or user rating system for the businesses and/or products listed.
Some currently available ratings and review systems are specifically designed to provide a potential customer with information about potential businesses and/or merchants and/or products. However, using currently available ratings and review systems a given review or rating is typically never authenticated. Therefore, current rating and review systems are highly susceptible to submission of baseless and/or false reviews and/or other malicious manipulation by third parties, dishonest reviewers, competitors of the business and/or product being reviewed. As a result, a potential customer can never be sure of the source of the review, the motivations of the reviewer, or even if the reviewer has similar concerns and needs as the potential customer/user. Consequently, while a valuable tool, current rating and review systems lack a sense of community and the all important credibility/trust factor that makes word-of-mouth recommendation networks so appealing.
As noted above, word-of-mouth recommendation networks have significant flaws and are in many ways a throwback to a more personal, neighborhood-based, time that has, in many respects, and for better or for worse, yielded to an Internet connected and faster-paced lifestyle. However, the fast pace of modern purchasing transactions has, in many respects, only increased the desire in many potential customers to connect with a trusted, or at least authenticated, contact to provide recommendations for businesses and/or merchants and/or products. This is particularly true in the general service industries and personal service industries that have come to dominate the Western world's economies.